Pretrial motions heating up in murder case

SANDPOINT — Bonner County prosecutors are pushing back at defense efforts to have evidence suppressed in the first-degree murder case pending against Keith Allen Brown.

Prosecutors Louis Marshall and Phil Robinson have filed papers rebutting defense attorney Dan Sheckler’s contention that evidence against Brown should be suppressed because investigators misled the judge who swore out arrest and search warrants.

Brown, 48, is accused of shooting Leslie Carlton Breaw to death at Priest Lake in January 2007.

The defense challenge centers on the testimony of a sheriff’s detective who went before Judge Barbara Buchanan the following month to obtain the warrants. At the time, Breaw’s remains had not yet been discovered and Brown was being sought for using the dead man’s financial transaction cards.

The warrants were used to apprehend Brown in Florida and secure evidence to build the murder case against him.

The defense argues there was insufficient cause to issue the warrants because there was no showing that Brown was using the card without Breaw’s permission. There were also statements from several witnesses who told investigators they had seen Breaw after Brown allegedly used the card — potentially exculpatory information which was not shared with Judge Barbara Buchanan, Sheckler said in court documents.

But prosecutors counter that ample evidence was presented to suggest the missing man’s card was being misused.

Breaw’s vehicle was discovered abandoned a quarter mile from his Coolin home and it contained a wallet, but no transaction card, the state said. Breaw had also not been seen in the weeks leading up to the warrant hearing, his dogs were abandoned and his mother had not heard from him since mid-January, prosecutors said in court documents.

Moreover, the state alleges Brown was already under investigation for engaging in identity fraud, and questions how the circumstances of the transaction card’s use could have been probed further when Breaw was missing and later found dead on a snow bank within walking distance of his home.

“It’s uncertain,” prosecutors wrote, “how Detectives could have further investigated considering that Mr. Breaw was missing at the time and in fact was already shot in the head and dead.”

The defense seeks a hearing for a judge to decide if Det. Tony Ingram’s testimony showed a reckless disregard for the truth. The prosecution maintains the hearing is unnecessary because Ingram’s testimony was truthful and the alleged Breaw sightings were reported after the warrants were obtained.

Brown’s wife, Tyrah, was also implicated in the slaying of Breaw, but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of accessory to second-degree murder and was given a suspended prison term.

Keith Brown remains jailed while awaiting trial.